AMA: Sentry Director of PMM, Alexandra Sasha Blumenfeld on Storytelling

It depends on the audience, medium, and the main goal of the story you’re telling, but a very basic framework I use—and one that I’ve found to be the most effective for business storytelling—looks like this: State the pain/challenge – What’s the core problem or need? This draws the audience in by addressing something relatable. Present the solution – How are you solving it, and what makes your solution different from others? This is the heart of the story where the value is communicated. Highlig ...Read More

To make sure everyone internally agrees on what sets you apart from the competition, I like to break it down into layers. First, there's the one-liner: a simple, clear statement about how your approach to solving the problem is different. Everyone in the company should know this—it usually comes from leadership and ties into the company’s overall strategy. To keep it fresh and top of mind, it needs to be repeated regularly in all-hands meetings, internal communications, and whenever leadership s ...Read More

To align storytelling with key business objectives in a way that feels authentic to your target audience, the first step is making sure your KBOs are aligned with broader business goals. In my experience, this only works when the whole business is focused on the same priorities and knows how to weave the story into their own content and conversations. Next, it’s helpful to know exactly which audience segment the story applies to. This is where shared messaging guides come in handy—they help keep ...Read More

The first thing to ask is, who’s your audience? Whether you're speaking to a technical end-user or a business audience, always start by leading with the differentiated outcome or solution you unlock. This is the high-level message that sets the stage. A great example is Suno’s "Make a song about anything"—they don’t focus on their proprietary tech but the end result it enables. For a technical end-user, once you’ve established the unique outcome and problem your algorithm solves, follow up with ...Read More

Driving buy-in for a new narrative style with the sales team shouldn’t happen in a marketing vacuum. It starts with working closely with sales leaders—and, depending on your organization’s size, your CRO should advocate and drive buy-in from the top down. While it might seem like a no-brainer to introduce a new process, timing is critical. If the sales team is focused on other priorities, pushing a narrative shift won’t gain traction (and unfortunately, you'll waste a lot of time spinning your w ...Read More

The short answer is: talk with customers. The storylines come from them. When you’re starting from scratch with a new product, I like to focus on finding at least three key use cases. These use cases show real problems the product solves, and you can use them in docs, content, demos, and conversations. To bring those stories to life, I gather insights from beta customers to make sure those use cases are real and relevant. Their stories add credibility. From there, we’ll then create short, point- ...Read More